Elections will not affect 2019 UTME, says JAMB

The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, has said that the 2019 general elections would not affect the board’s 2019/2020 examination.

He made this remark while fielding questions from journalists shortly after delivering the 2018 Annual Sobo Sowemimo Lecture of the Abeokuta Club in Abeokuta.

Oloyede said that since the Independent National Electoral Commission had given the dates of the elections, then the board would only need to adjust accordingly.

“I don’t think there will be any need for a shift in the examination date because of the 2019 general elections. I believe INEC has done well by giving us a prior notice six months ago.

“They have given us the date of the elections. So we have no excuse not to have adjusted. We have adjusted appropriately,” he said.

Oloyede decried the rate at which candidates, who were not qualified to write the examination applied for it, thereby, causing what he described as “unnecessary luggage” on the board.

He said that the examination body would adopt stiffer measures to check incidences of unqualified candidates from applying and writing the examination for the 2019/2020 admission exercise.

Oloyede noted that JAMB would not allow anyone to take undue advantage over others, saying the board would not repeat the mistake it recorded in the last examination as regards this development.

The JAMB registrar said the body would begin the 2019/2020 examination process by October, promising that the procedure for the next examination would be better than the last one.

“We are on with the 2018/2019 admission exercise. This, we started just about a month ago. We believe that by the end of October, we would then begin the 2019/2020 admission.

“I can assure you that we are fine-tuning and learning from our mistakes last year. We are perfecting the processes and procedures, ensuring that no one is allowed to have undue advantage over the others.

Oloyede, who did not disclose the exact number of the applicants expected for the 2019 exercise, said measures had been put in place to ensure that all applicants are minimally qualified.

“It is difficult to say the exact number of applicants we are expecting this time. We expect to crash the number because many of those who are taking the forms are not even prepared or qualified for the exam.

“Some are SS1 students, who are just trying; contributing N5,000 unduly to our purse. We are putting in place some checks to make people who want to apply to be minimally qualified.

“That’s where we are moving to, rather than creating unrealistic figures. We cannot say actually this is the figure but we are trying to ensure that we don’t have unnecessary luggage.

“We are not interested in the money. We are interested in having adequate preparation for those who are genuine students,” he added.